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Color Options from American Patchwork & Quilting April 2010

We know you love the projects that appear in American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. We took inspiration from projects in the magazine and created Web-exclusive versions, complete with full instructions.

Garden Paths Color Option

Starry Irish Chain

Quilt tester Laura Boehnke used a mottled dark brown background in both the Irish Chain and star blocks, causing them to bled rather than stand out as separate unites. “A consistent background allows the stars and Irish Chain ‘paths’ to really pop,” she says. The retro-inspired prints are from the Penny Lane collection from Hoffman California Fabrics.

At the Crossroads Color Option

Playful Pastel Throw

Youthful fabrics from Simply Sweet by Barbara Jones of QuiltSoup for Henry Glass & Co. and a tic-tac-toe-style setting give quilt tester Laura Boehnke’s nine-block version of At the Crossroads a game-board vibe. Follower her lead and take advantage of the X blocks’ large rectangles to showcase fussy-cut designs and directional patterns. For a coordinated look, Laura used scraps leftover from the larger blocks to make identical Broken Dishes blocks.

Color Cues Color Option

Bright Rectangles Wall Hanging

Reverse the roles of light and dark found in Color Cues (try light sashing and dark block borders) to create another high-contrast quilt but with the opposite effect. If solids aren’t your style, pair tone-on-tones with a bold floral from Christine Graf’s Folk Dance collection for Clothworks to create blocks similar to quilt tester Laura Boehnke’s.

Two-Piece Puzzle

This seemingly complex quilt may turn heads, but putting it together won’t leave you scratching yours. Take a closer look and you’ll discover it’s made of just two blocks: a star block in two colorways and an hourglass block that’s rotated.

Two-Piece Puzzle Color Option

Floating Stars Wall Hanging

Just two blocks—a star block in two colorways and an hourglass block that gets rotated—team up in a wall hanging. Florals, prints, and a stripe from Floral Melody by Ro Gregg for Northcott Silks provide a soft color palette.

Seeing Circles Color Option

Scrappy Kaleidoscope Table Topper

Marry past and present by piecing Seeing Circles with Civil War reproduction fabrics from the Stafford County collection by Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics. Quilt tester Laura Boehnke used an unlikely plaid to create an abstract circular illusion around her center Kaleidescope block. Look for high-contrast prints for the asymmetrical borders to give your quilt a scrappy quality.

Fly Into Spring Color Option

Fast Flying Geese Wall Hanging

Opulent fabrics and stately rows of Flying Geese units set apart quilt tester Laura Boehnke’s version of Fly Into Spring. Choose a bold, tapestrylike floral, such as this one from the Road to Marrakech collection from Studio E Fabrics (studioefabrics.com), for the 8”-wide sashing to achieve a similar effect.